Kensington Metro Park marine patrol saves the day for Detroit woman and her granddaughter

What was supposed to be a fun Labor Day afternoon at Kensington Metropark turned into a harrowing ordeal for a Detroit grandmother and her granddaughter.

The park's marine patrol responded to a near-drowning around 2:50 p.m. Monday off Martindale Beach in Kent Lake, located just over the county line in Oakland County, after the pair found themselves in a spot of trouble.

"A grandmother and granddaughter were on a floating device (a raft), and another individual was pushing them out in the water when the wind pushed them out past the buoys," Huron-Clinton Metropolitan Authority Police Chief Michael Reese said Tuesday.

A Metropark marine patrol boat successfully retrieved the grandmother, 43, and her 3-year-old granddaughter, who are both from Detroit, and brought them to shore. The young girl was pulled off the raft and the grandmother was pulled out of the water, Reese said.

"The grandmother thought she could touch the bottom but could not," he said. "She panicked and then the granddaughter panicked."

Oakland County EMS accessed their condition on scene.

"They had a lot of people. All the parks were pretty much filled," but no one else had any trouble out on the water on Labor Day, the police chief said.

However, a fatal drowning Saturday morning at Stony Creek Metropark in MaComb County shows that the water can be dangerous.

A 72-year-old woman and her husband fell out of a rented rowboat into Stony Creek Lake. The woman drowned and could not be resuscitated after the park marine patrol retrieved her from the water. She was later pronounced dead at the hospital.

Reese said the couple had been given life jackets but took them off.

"As the husband was throwing the anchor in, it caused the boat to sway, which flipped her out of the boat and, in turn, flipped him out of the boat," he said.

The incident at Stony Creek Lake was the first drowning in a Huron-Clinton Metropark this year.

Contact Livingston Daily county and townships reporter Jennifer Eberbach at 517-548-7148 or at jeberbach@livingstondaily.com.